[VO] We went to Afghanistan twice in the last 6 months to record this footage.
[VO] Many people warned us that filming the opium crop being eradicated just wasn't realistic
and that our chances of finding villagers willing to show us their crops were next to zero.
[VO] They said we'd never be able to find out who's backing the drug trafficking business
in a country that's had a NATO military presence for 14 years.
[VO] That's what they said and...
it wasn't easy but, we did manage to achieve our objective.
...which means the operation was a success...
AFGHAN OVERDOSE
[VO] In 2009 it was our team that shot a documentary commemorating the 20th anniversary of Soviet troops withdrawing from Afghanistan.
[VO] This time though, as we flew in, local people warned us that a lot has changed in the country, and not always for the better.
[Announcement] Ladies and gentlemen - welcome to Kabul International Airport. Local time is twelve o'clock. Temperature is 25 degrees.
[Correspondent] We're back in Afghanistan to find out why a non-intervention policy for heroin still exists.
[VO] The last in the series of opium poppy crop eradication operations in Afghanistan was a failure.
[VO] All the money simply ended up being spent on the presidential campaign, the country's budget has run dry.
[VO] Investigative reporting is a serious challenge.
[VO] You're expected to oil the wheels a little by paying "baksheesh",
before you can film anything.
[Man] Hey, you!
[Man] Come over here!
[Translator] You asked for money, I gave you money.
[Translator] What else do you want?
[Man] The pennies you gave me?
[Man] Screw you!
[Translator] I'll punch you and you'll collapse where you stand!
[Man] You Soviet whore!
[Man] Get your friends and get the hell out of here!
[Translator] Let me drive!
[VO] Our driver and translator, Amu saves the day.
[Man] You've no idea who you're working for! [Translator] Imbeciles! Get your hands off me!
[Correspondent] What does he want? [Translator] He said you promised 1,000 Afghani.
[Correspondent] I didn't promise a thing.
[Correspondent] We're driving to a place called Pole Sokhta.
[Correspondent] It's the major drug user hangout in Kabul.
[Correspondent] And the police can't do anything about them.
[Correspondent] After each raid, the drug addicts return.
[VO] Pole Sokhta, which basically means, "burnt money" has become a local attraction.
[VO] There are always traffic jams here and pedestrians stop by, just to stand on top of the bridge
and look at the denizens beneath.
[VO] We were told that anything like this would have been unthinkable when the Soviet Union was here
or even under the Taliban.
[VO] We had to pay a private guard to make sure we could film here safely.
[Sah Mohammad, Private Guard]
[Sah] They may throw stones and sticks. Whatever they can find.
[Sah] And they'll break your camera.
[VO] They warned us not to touch anything beneath the bridge under any circumstances.
[VO] It's very easy to be infected here as most of the drug users are terminally ill.
[VO] By local standards we enjoyed a warm welcome.
[VO] The day before, an Afghani colleague has his lens smashed and he took a few punches.
[VO] Here under the bridge a heroine fix costs 6 dollars.
[VO] That was how much one local user asked for. He called himself Sayed.
[Sayed] We are all in here, they have problems.
In this case, we are...
[Sayed] And all of... don't have an occupation...
[Sayed]Any job...
[Sayed] They are all jobless!
[VO] Sayed agreed to appear on camera in return for money.
[VO] He volunteered to show us how he shoots up drugs
but we refused that and instead offered him an alternative suggestion.
[Correspondent] We'll try to help this person, get him into rehab to cure his addiction for free.
[Correspondent] This is one of our goals.
[VO] There are several state-sponsored drug-rehabilitation hospitals in Kabul.
[VO] We're planning to visit one to find out if they are able to admit a patient from the street
or if it's a time consuming process involving tons of paperwork.
[Cameraman] What a stench!
[Correspondent] The smell is terrible.
[Correspondent] I guess we'll have to do some disinfection afterwards.
[Correspondent] Too bad our cameras can't record smells.
[Correspondent] It's a whole different story.
[Correspondent] It's impossible to stay more than 10 minutes, the smell knocks you off your feet.
[VO] Despite having proper accreditation, we were soon detained by the state security service.
[VO] We were accused of filming classified subjects and, possibly,
for working for the extremists - specifically, the Taliban.
[Translator] They're foreigners and came to work in Afghanistan.
[Translator] They're from foreign TV.
[Inspector] What country? [Translator] Russia.
[Cameraman] Russia Today
[Translator] They are filming a documentary.
[Inspector] From Russia? No, they can't film.
[VO] Our main camera was confiscated but luckily, they didn't notice the second.
[Correspondent] We were given accreditation, we presented it.
[Correspondent] We have legal permission to work here.
[Translator] We have a legal right to work here.
[Inspector] We'll take you to the police station to check your credentials, and then we'll see.
[VO] In the end we didn't go to a police station and refused to pay baksheesh.
[VO] We were forced to delete the material we'd filmed on the main camera and then they let us go.
[Correspondent] But he saw we had official accreditation. [Translator] It didn't matter.
[Translator] He said it's easy to forge.
[Translator] That's what he said!
[Translator] Got it, Aleksandr? [Correspondent] Yes.
[Correspondent] They basically sabotaged our work... [Cameraman] No, why? I filmed almost everything.
[VO] Luckily, that was our only brush with the law.
[VO] As we later discovered, one of the police generals remembered the word "shuravi" very well,
that means "Soviet".
[VO] The police immediately let us go with them on a raid.
[Correspondent] Panjshir Street is a hot-spot in central Kabul,
it's a poor area.
[Correspondent] We're with a police raid,
[Correspondent] They're checking for drugs being sold in broad daylight.
[Police] Don't move!
[Man] Leave me alone!
[Man] What did I do to you?
[Man] May your father be cursed!
[Man] You've got no conscience!
[Man] You're the ones to blame,
for the misery we're in now!
[Man] You call yourselves authorities?
[Man] You're the ones to blame for everything!
[Police] What are you doing here?
[Man] I worked in the morning, now I'm done.
[Police] Let him take the kid and leave.
[Man] I was just going back from work.
[Man] You should be ashamed of yourself!
[Police] We're only letting you go because of the kid.
[Police] Off you go!
[VO] The Police are well aware of all the places where locals can obtain drugs.
[VO] Most of the time, they are sold from inside expensive houses secure behind high walls.
[VO] No one can get in without a warrant
but the minute word gets out that a raid is being planned,
the information seeps through to the drug dealers themselves,
making it impossible to catch them red-handed.
[Police] Keep your money. I don't need it. Easy, easy.
[Police] Hands off.
[Police] It's hashish. - Hashish?
Show them.
[Correspondent] We could only catch hashish and opium users,
and the place where drugs are being sold is closed.
[Correspondent] We need a warrant to get in, we don't have one.
[Correspondent] Everyone knows what's going on.
[Correspondent] Here's the gap where drugs are handed out.
[VO] All of the users arrested during the raid were soon released,
by local standards they didn't possess a big enough quantity to justify a jail term.
[VO] The police say there are about 700 thousand people like them in the city,
at almost 18% of Kabul's population.
[VO] Most of the big fish await the police in town,
but at the checkpoint on the road into the city.
[VO] The police call it "The Gates to Kabul".
[VO] They have their own procedures
and hardly ever use the special equipment that was purchased recently with UN money.
[VO] They are more accustomed to old school methods
looking for stashes in the more unlikely locations and following their instincts.
[VO] One of the most surprising weapon against drugs we found was what they call, the "veracity test".
[VO] They presume that a real culprit's heart will give him a away.
[VO] You simply have to lay your hand on the suspect's chest and feel his pulse.
[VO] We were a little skeptical at first.
[Correspondent] It's calm, steady.
[Correspondent] Here as well?
[Correspondent] This one seems ok.
[Police] Look, he's swallowing a lot, his throat's dry,
that means he's nervous.
[VO] Moments later the officers found a stash of hashish in his boots.
[Correspondent] He's got stuff! [Translator] Yes, he has!
[Correspondent] This one? [Translator] Where did they find it?
[Police] In his shoe.
[VO] In a little over an hour, that same "veracity test"
threw a shadow over one man
who'd driven his car to Kabul from Jalalabad in the East of the country.
[Abdulrab Kohdamani, Checkpoint Commander]
[Abdulrab] The driver's tongue was faltering, he was visibly nervous.
[Abdulrab] We singled him out and he grew even more stressed.
[Abdulrab] We put a hand on his heart and asked him,
what was in the car.
[Abdulrab] He said there was nothing,
so then we performed a thorough search of the vehicle,
and discovered a drug stash inside a gas tank.
[VO] This is a commonly used trick for trafficking drugs.
[VO] The gauge showed that the tank was full.
[VO] But there was actually no gas at all.
,in its place, a 21 kilo stash of opium poppies.
[VO] This is by no means a large quantity by today's standards,
a staggering 50 tons of opium and heroin are confiscated at this checkpoint alone each year.
[VO] Hefty prices are put on the heads of the most zealous police officers.
[Emamudin Motamyin, Head of Dept., Ministry of Internal Affairs, Afghanistan]
[Emamudin] According to the statistics,
opium revenues are estimated at a staggering $60 billion per year.
[Emamudin] About 4 percent stays in Afghanistan with the rest being claimed by drug cartels.
AFGHAN OVERDOSE - THE CASE
[VO] The next morning we went back to Pole Sokhta, the place where drug users get together.
[VO] This time we're accompanied by the doctors who have agreed to admit Sayed to their hospital.
[Medic] We have to be more careful.
[Correspondent] We'll try to get there fast, call him,
take him to the car and take off.
[VO] Sayed was nowhere to be found, his phone number was blocked and there were no police to guard us this time.
[VO] We were just about ready to leave empty-handed when,
5 minutes later, Sayed reappeared, out of the blue.
[VO] This time he wasn't happy to see us accompanied by doctors.
[VO] When he learned that the treatment would take almost one and a half months he tried to back out.
[Medic] 45 days and you'll be cured. [Sayed] 45 days?
[Medic] Your life will get back on track.
[Medic] The first 15 days will be hard, but then it gets easier.
[Medic] Our hospital is in the Jangalak area.
[Sayed] No, no, I'm not going to Jangalak.
[Sayed] I know a different hospital that I'd rather go to.
[Sayed] Jangalak is too far for me.
[VO] After 10 minutes of convincing we finally talked Sayed into going.
[Medic] What are you using?
[Sayed] Only heroin.
[Correspondent] Heroin? [Medic] Yes.
[Medic] Heroin's very popular here.
[Correspondent] Where does he get it?
[Medic] Under the bridge.
[Medic] You can get as much as you want there,
even a kilo if you want!
[VO] Over 200 patients from around Afghanistan
are currently undergoing treatment at this hospital,
which is considered to be one of the best in Kabul.
[VO] A strip search is conducted before people are allowed in.
[VO] There was a time when dealers disguised as visitors came to smuggle drugs into the facility.
[Doctor] When did you start using drugs?
[Doctor] Where was it?
[Doctor] Who did you shoot up with?
[Doctor] How did it happen?
[Sayed] The first time I tried drugs was in prison with my friend, five months ago.
[Sayed] First I just used a little, gradually increasing my dose.
[Sayed] Drugs seemed to distract me from the sorrow.
[VO] Ten minutes later we barely recognized Sayed.
[VO] He had been required to part company with his hair -
that's compulsory for anyone who is admitted to the hospital.
[VO] The first 15 days of treatment are the toughest.
[VO] He'll be in quarantine because this is when patients have to go through what's called heroin withdrawal.
[Abdul Qayum Gunestani, Drug Rehab Specialist]
[Abdul Qayum] This is your bed, make yourself at home.
[Abdul Qayum] We're glad you came here.
[Abdul Qayum] It's good they were able to persuade you.
[Sayed] I'm glad too.
[Abdul Qayum] If a patient's family supports him financially...
[Abdul Qayum] If their means allow them to...
[Abdul Qayum] If they help him find a job,
and if he manages to stay,
under medical supervision,
he might be able to avoid a relapse.
Why not?
[Correspondent] I'm sure that everything will be OK! [Sayed] Be happy!
[Correspondent] Bye! [Sayed] Good Bye!
To be honest, we feel very tired.
[Correspondent] Firstly, we smell of the drug hangout we went to and we've worked a lot.
[Correspondent] On the other hand, we're glad we made it on time.
[Correspondent] The guy's wife will be giving birth in a few weeks,
so I hope he'll leave hospital a reformed man.
[Correspondent] So, it's been a good day.
[VO] The following morning, we had agreed to meet a fellow-citizen.
[VO] For several years Russia has been sharing satellite data with Afghanistan about the whereabouts of undercover heroin laboratories within its borders.
[VO] There was an operation recently intended to destroy an illegal heroin lab was conducted.
[VO] They promised that we would be able to see the police footage.
[Correspondent] Welcome. [Ilya] Thanks.
[Ilya] Good day! [Correspondent] Hello!
[Correspondent] How was the raid? [Ilya] Thank God, all's well.
[Correspondent] Let's see what you managed to get.
[Ilya Levitan, Russian Drug Control Service, Afghanistan]
[Ilya] A helicopter takes off and gets to the site.
[Ilya] Special forces alight.
[Ilya] They destroy the labs, if possible,
apprehend the people who run it,
and smuggle drugs.
[Ilya] The drugs are usually destroyed on the spot, as it's often a big batch.
[Ilya] In 2001, after....
the Taliban was overthrown,
and the Western coalition and Americans entered the country,
they estimated the opium crop to be just 180 tons,
this year though,
they estimate that it's around 6,500 tons.
[Ilya] That's quite a difference.
[Ilya] Americans say they use taxpayers' money,
and because heroin and opium,
aren't being smuggled in large quantities to the USA,
it's not considered a threat to America,
so they're unwilling to spend taxpayers' money fighting drugs.
[VO] An important question remains, why do the international forces,
that have fought Taliban radicals in Afghanistan for more than 14 years,
continually overlook their main source of income - namely, drugs?
[VO] We wanted to arrange a meeting with a former field commander
who had started to fight the Taliban even before the NATO military arrived in the country.
[Khadikhan] Welcome!
[VO] The man of the house, aided by a relative who acts as interpreter,
shows us pictures of his former fellow soldiers.
[VO] Each one has died a mysterious death in recent years.
[Khadikhan] And let me tell you,
the people who do interfere with the Taliban...
that's who the Americans are killing!
[Correspondent] These two were too? [Interpreter] Yes, they were.
[Interpreter] They had some footage and photos that they wanted to show the government,
that's why they were killed.
[Correspondent] Those who fight are being killed and all evidence destroyed?
[Interpreter] Yes.
[VO] In the 80's, field commander Khadikhan fought alongside the Mujahidin against Soviet forces.
[VO] Years later he even treats his former enemies with respect unlike his current ones.
[Interpreter] Here he is during the troop withdrawal.
[Khadikhan, Former Field Commander] Americans have a vested interest in continued war in Afghanistan,
and don't want it's to flourish.
[Khadikhan] The Taliban itself was created by Americans,
i'ts cover for trafficking.
[Khadikhan] Do you know how many drugs
are smuggled into Northern parts of Afghanistan with their help?
[Khadikhan] It's an international mafia with Americans at the head.
[VO] On general Khadikhan's advice
we drove out to a Kabul suburb where we can try to find people who'd actually witnessed NATO soldiers working with the Taliban.
[Interpreter] They all live like this.
[Correspondent] Refugees from Southern areas of Afghanistan who fled the Taliban live here.
[Correspondent] I can only imagine how they lived back home,
if they chose to flee to Kabul to live in a tent camp like this.
[VO] Several dozen families survived the NATO air strikes.
[VO] Their aircraft were bombing the Taliban but hit ordinary working people's homes.
[VO] Even though everything was documented, several years later,
these people have still been unable to secure any compensation.
[Local] These are documents of our perished friends, relatives, neighbours.
[Local] Foreigners shot them, bombed them.
[Local] The government doesn't pay us attention in these camps,
even though we really need help!
[VO] There was once an American military base close to where these people used to live.
[VO] There were poppy fields flowering in the distance
but even though the crop there was close to a NATO base, no one seemed to be too bothered.
[Refugee] Americans cultivate the poppy too.
[Refugee] I know that in the province of Gilmend they grew poppies on three jeribs of land,
about 4.5 hectares.
[Refugee] They keep watch over it.
[Refugee] We can't see where they take it.
[Refugee] Americans and dealers sell it together.
[VO] The hardest thing for anyone visiting Afghanistan to figure out these days is where the 7 billion dollars that the US allocated to combatting Afghan heroin has gone since 2001.
[VO] If what we saw in central Kabul today is the pinnacle of the anti-drug campaign,
then it is very clear why the overall acreage of poppy fields in the country continues to grow each year.
[VO] Just as we were about to finish filming the "anti-drug wall", our phone rang.
[VO] It was Sayed, the man we'd helped to get onto a drug rehabilitation programme the previous day.
[Correspondent] Yes, near the bridge, we will be waiting for you.
[Correspondent] That's just great!
[Correspondent] Sayed, the guy we put in rehab, ran away.
[Correspondent] He called to say he was back by the bridge and wants to meet.
[Correspondent] I bet he wants more money.
[VO] This is our third time visiting Pole Sokhta,
the area where Kabul's drug users gather.
[VO] Sayed had said he didn't want us to interview him this time,
he had run away from rehab and the only thing he was asking for now, was money -
presumably to pay for him to get home.
[VO] We had to be honest and face facts:
our plan to help Sayed get treatment for his addiction had simply ended in failure.
[VO] He returned to where he came from and rejoined his old buddies.
AFGHAN OVERDOSE - THE CASE
War and pain,
bleak times and regrets.
Poverty and agony,
and grief for food.
Corruption and embezzlement,
Power deals, puzzled election,
Growing poppy with empty pockets,
Drugs and drought,
Terrorist and Taliban,
Killing and suicide bombing, Kidnapping and robbery,
In the streets and markets, Self-immolation of women,
Discrimination and abuse, Useless words and useless people.
[VO] The harsh reality in modern Afghanistan, and that's often reflected in song.
[VO] Familiar words like "drug trafficking", "corruption" and "terrorism" all appear in the rhythm of rap.
[VO] These performers have already been warned that they'll pay for their words.
[Paradise, Singer] Every time when I go out on stage,
or for an interview,
or when I'm stuck in traffic,
I'm scared of a suicide bomber,
that might be driving a car next to mine.
[Paradise] But I've never been afraid of death,
because, as the saying goes,
"Death will find you, no matter where you are."
[VO] At 7 am the next morning, we woke to receive a message that there had been yet another explosion in Kabul.
[VO] A suicide bomber had blown up a car at the gates to the American base.
[VO] No military personnel were injured but two passers-by were killed in the blast.
[Interpreter] Is it old or today's explosion?
[Child] This one's new.
[Interpreter] He says it's from today.
[Interpreter] Show me!
[Child] We found plenty of them here.
[Correspondent] The chance of survival was next to nil,
the bomb was packed with sharp metal pieces like this one.
[Correspondent] Take it.
[VO] For a modest baksheesh the local children weren't just willing to show us fragments of the bomb
but also a piece of human skull that they'd found close to the explosion site.
[VO] Acts of terror have become so common here that locals are no longer shocked or even surprised any more.
[VO] The people who live closest to the base suffer the most,
there's not a single pane of glass in the windows and the owner's grandchildren were wounded by fragments from the blast.
[Khadzhi Rakhmatula, Local Resident] I'll tell you this; apart from Americans,
there are people from 44 countries here
and they all say they serve Afghan interests.
[Khadzhi] But we're not sure anymore, who's serving,
and who's betraying us.
[Correspondent] Tomorrow we have to use this route to drive near Jalalabad,
to use this exact road, to film farmers growing poppies.
[Correspondent] This rather kills the mood.
[VO] Another day and we're leaving Kabul for the Eastern part of the country
just to try out luck.
[VO] As always we had some petty-cash with us to pay for expenses on the trip.
[VO] A huge sum in Afghainstan.
[VO] But we'd already learned that that human life here is worth much less.
[Correspondent] We're driving East.
[Correspondent] The city of Jalalabad isn't far from the Pakistani border.
[Correspondent] The road is by no means safe, I wish we could go faster.
[Correspondent] But that's not possible after the rain.
[Correspondent] We saw several car crashes along the way.
[Correspondent] It's a paradox.
[Correspondent] Driving fast is risky, but going slowly isn't safe either.
[VO] Our driver, Amu took us to the market and asked us to buy scarves and traditional caps.
[VO] He didn't want it to be so obvious that he had foreigners in his car.
[Translator Amu] Most people don't like conventional,
or official clothes,
and may react adversely.
[Translator Amu] Clothes like that show that you're from a different country,
from a different land.
[Translator Amu] As soon they notice,
they'll start to interfere.
[VO] We were lucky and made it to Jalalabad without running into any trouble.
[VO] In the morning, we took the opportunity to take a see the city from the upper floors of this hotel.
[VO] We're staying at a place called "The White House" although it looks more like a grand state building.
[VO] But what's even more intriguing is where the money came from to build this particular White house.
[Translator Amu] The money was earned selling drugs and used to build the so-called "White House".
[Correspondent] Do the police know? [Translator Amu] Of course, and the people too.
[Correspondent] Everybody knows, right? [Translator Amu] About the source of the money.
[Translator Amu] The White House was built with drug money.
[Translator Amu] Symbolic!
[VO] A little baksheesh and 90 minutes later
and we were in a field where opium poppies are about to be sowed.
[VO] They allowed us to film for no more than 2 hours and offered two brothers for us to interview.
They're called Ehnasula and Ezabula Jabarhel.
[VO] Farmers are more interested in planting poppies than, grain for example.
[VO] Wheat fields need to be near a water supply,
they need copious amounts during growing season
but the poppy can be sown and forgotten about, until it's ready to be harvested.
[Correspondent] These are poppy seeds being mixed with soil.
[Correspondent] Normally, one kilo of seeds is enough for a whole hectare of land.
[Farmer] We get 18 to 20 kg of opium from one field.
[Farmer] We sell at different prices. Some buy on credit, some with cash.
[Farmer] One kilo costs about 8000 Afghani.
[VO] That amounts to around 120 dollars.
[VO] We learned later though that the brothers had rather understated the real situation.
[VO] In this region, one hectare of land is more likely to yield at least 30 kilos of raw opium, not just 20.
[VO] Several years ago, a special anti-drug program was established for Afghanistan,
but it proved a miserable failure.
[VO] The plan was intended to cut opium production;
farmers were encouraged to surrender their poppy fields in return for payment.
[VO] It didn't have the desired result,
they would simply plant 3 hectares instead of 1,
then they gave one away to the government for money and sold the crop from the other two to the middle men, the Taliban.
[VO] That was a profitable business.
[VO] Now that all the crops have been harvested,
we can see how raw opium is extracted,
it will then be used to make heroin.
[VO] All the tools of their trade are kept out of sight in case of a police raid.
[Farmer] In the morning we pick a poppy head that we cut the night before,
and scrape the juice off.
[Farmer] For several more days we steep the juice with the leaves before it thickens completely.
[Farmer] After that, the opium can be sold.
[VO] If the brothers had chosen to grow wheat on their land,
their income would have been at least 10 times less.
[Farmer] The 3000 dollars we earned are already reinvested.
[Farmer] We bought brick.
[Farmer] The house became too small,
we need to expand.
[Farmer] Last year, the crop was poorer than this year.
[Farmer] This time we worked hard,
and the yield is better,
and the income is higher.
[VO] There are 11 children in the Jabarhel family.
[VO] Every stage of the raw opium production process happens right in front of their eyes.
[Farmer] I'm trying to prevent my kids from going down this road,
from becoming drug users.
[Translator] Are you afraid of that?
[Farmer] Yes, we're scared they might try opium one day.
[Translator] How can you prevent it?
[Farmer] We'd like to change the situation and grow something else,
like grain or maybe find another job altogether.
[Farmer] If the state helps us,
no one will grow poppy on their fields anymore.
[VO] They had no idea that, in Russia alone, more than 30 thousand people die each year because of Afghan heroin.
[VO] We'd brought a small projector with us as well as video showing how narcotics really affect drug-users.
[VO] We asked them to take the children away because we felt that the scenes were too explicit for such young eyes.
[Translator] Will you let your children watch?
[Translator] There are scenes of injections and other nasty things.
[Farmer] No, it's ok. [Translator] Let them watch? There's some scary footage.
[Correspondent] It's scary, with bloody wounds and such.
[Translator] They allow them, the parents allow them.
[Translator] Did you know our drugs find their way to other countries including Russia?
[Farmer] I'd really hate something that we just saw,
that's happening in other countries,
to happen here where we live.
[VO] It didn't quite have the effect we had hoped for.
There were no tears, no compassion and no pity.
[VO] The people who die from using Afghan heroin are a long way away.
[VO] But the money they can make is here, close at hand.
[VO] Not even local addicts who use nearby are worthy of much attention.
[Correspondent] They are willing to show it all - the way they store it, the way they sow it.
[Correspondent] They aren't hiding from anyone.
[Correspondent] But filming it is one thing, going back safely and keeping the footage is another thing.
[VO] We were able to leave Jalalabad while it was still daylight.
[VO] When we were on the road, we heard that the village where we filmed, had been visited by an armed group.
[VO] They wanted to know if anyone knew who we were and where we were staying.
[VO] We arrived in Kabul later that night and were very worried about the footage
we had collected, up until the moment our car pulled up outside the hotel.
[VO] We didn't sleep much, though.
[VO] Early that morning we were told that an unprecedented 1800 kilo batch of raw opium had just been intercepted.
[Correspondent] It's like veggies in a market, but it's opium poppy!
[VO] The drug haul was taken to a base belonging to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
[Correspondent] By the way, there are two different shipments of drugs.
[Correspondent] This one is this year's crop, while this is last year's.
[Correspondent] Specially marked with different colours. 1,800 kg fit in the back of this small truck.
[Correspondent] This is also Afghani know-how.
[Correspondent] The padlock means the goods come without a middleman.
[Correspondent] Straight from the maker to the buyer.
[Correspondent] This is our hero!
[Correspondent] Congratulations!
[VO] The traffickers were caught at a checkpoint thanks to the veracity testing technique that we saw earlier.
[VO] They laid a hand on the suspect's heart and it worked.
[VO] Later, we discovered that the truck was from the same area that we'd been to the previous day.
[Correspondent] On the one hand, a great job by Afghani police.
[Correspondent] On the other, we know they only arrested the runners.
[Correspondent] And the people behind the whole thing,
who created the trafficking route, won't be found, and there's a reason for that.
[Correspondent] Ok, time to pack our bags.
[VO] We had to head for the airport immediately after filming this episode.
[VO] We were leaving Afghanistan to return in another 6 months.
[Correspondent] The main thing is that all our characters stay alive,
because some of them were being threatened.
[Correspondent] Anyway, we'll have something to film in Spring.
[Correspondent] The main thing is, to all meet again. Let's go!
AFGHAN OVERDOSE - THE CASE
[VO] We're back in Afghanistan and we have a new cameraman on our team.
[VO] This is Stanivlav's first time in the country.
[VO] To him, everything here seems unusual,
but there are things that really have changed, and they aren't always obvious.
[VO] We're talking about the people who fight for the so called Islamic State.
[Ilya Levitan, Russian Drug Control Service, Afghanistan]
[Ilya] More and more militants who used to fight for the Taliban are raising the black flag,
and joining the ranks of ISIS.
[Ilya] Every year up to 30% of men serving in the Ministry of Defence,
and the Ministry of Home Affairs,
defect from their units,
taking their uniforms,
and arms... and join the rebels.
[Ilya] And half of them are engaged in illegal drug trafficking and manufacturing.
[VO] ISIS militants have been spotted more than a few times in the East of the country, in areas close to the Pakistani border.
[VO] That's where our story takes us next, we want to meet our old acquaintances - the Jabarhel brothers.
[Correspondent] Everyone, pay attention.
[Translator] Here's where we stopped last time. [Correspondent] Yes, I remember the fence!
[Correspondent] And that's their house. [Translator] Right.
[Correspondent] Ok, let's stop here as we did it last time.
[VO] We'd been looking forward to meeting the brothers and visiting their poppy field
to film the main scenes of this programme and be on our way before darkness fell.
[Correspondent] It's rolling.
Ready, yeah?
[Translator] Open the door.
[Translator] We'd like to talk to you.
[Translator] We have a few questions.
[Translator] We've visited you before.
[Translator] Can you hear me?
[Translator] Hello. [Farmer] Hi.
[Translator] Do you recognise us?
[Correspondent] May we go in?
[Translator] May we come in?
[Farmer] Why?
[Translator] He says filming's not allowed.
[Correspondent] We filmed them already, doesn't he remember?
[Translator] After our visit, the police arrived and now their crop will be destroyed.
[Translator] It's today or tomorrow.
[Translator] Can we see the field before the police?
[Translator] Are your sure there's no way we can do it?
[Translator] No, he won't let us.
[Correspondent] Well, all that's left for us to do is film the kids.
[Correspondent] Look, there are two babies asleep here.
[VO] We are at a loss and not at all sure what to do next.
We asked our translator to help persuade one of the elders of the Jabarhel family to talk the brothers into coming with us for the raid tomorrow when their field would be destroyed, the elder agreed to help us out.
[VO] Police officers have regularly been patrolling the roads leading to the Pakistani border for over a week now.
[VO] They've been searching cars for stashes of drugs and ammunition.
[VO] Among their most recently found hoard of trophies is a handgun,
about 2000 rounds for a Kalashnikov machine-gun.
[VO] They agreed to let us accompany them on their next poppy field raid,
asking only that we tell no one about the time or place of the operation.
[Correspondent] We headed to the border with Pakistan at 6 am.
[Correspondent] A few police trucks with machine guns which all resembled a military operation.
[Correspondent] On our way we had to stop and wait for reinforcements to arrive.
[Correspondent] I wondered what to expect,
and this is was my answer.
[VO] Day three of the special forces raids,
just a day earlier, the police force had suffered losses.
[VO] In this region, a "hidden war" has been raging since spring between the Taliban and ISIS militants.
[VO] They're fighting for control of different territories.
[VO] We've arrived in the Shinvari region.
[Correspondent] They said to be careful here too.
[Correspondent] We were told drug dealers often leave mines,
and several people have been blown up yesterday.
[VO] About 10 hectares of poppy fields are to be cut down today - at least, that's the plan.
[VO] It wasn't obvious from afar where the fields in questions were
but it turns out that poppies come in four colours, in this region they are white.
[VO] We only have two hours to complete the operation before news of it filters through to the Taliban or their particularly zealous ISIS opponents.
[VO] The locals are much more afraid on their lot than the police.
[Correspondent] The toughest part was finding people, to help the police cut down the crop.
[Correspondent] Everyone's scared, because the poppy is their main income.
[Correspondent] There's no authority where poppies grow.
[VO] We soon spotted our old friends,
they willingly surrendered their fields and so the authorities have no claim against them.
[VO] At least, that's the official line.
[VO] Why though didn't the police simply wait a little longer so that they could instead arrest the people who actually harvest the poppy?
That remains a mystery.
[Translator] Do you know what your losses will be this year?
[Farmer] This year it's roughly... [Translator] In dollars.
[Farmer] In dollars it's roughly 5-6 thousand.
[VO] The brothers didn't seem too downhearted over their financial loss.
[VO] Though there remains a distinct possibility that the family still owns several more fields,
just like this one, that the authorities have no idea about.
[VO] The leader of the Shinvari region is a rare visitor to this village.
[VO] He never walks anywhere without armed security guards
and his conversation with the farmers resembles a chat between a school teacher and a few of his cheeky pupils.
[VO] This is what local authorities call a "proactive talk".
[Local leader] Hey, grandpa, come over here.
[Local leader] We need to talk.
[Local leader] Why did you sow poppies?
[Farmer] This isn't our field, it belongs to other people.
[Local leader] Why do they sow poppies?
[Farmer] They do it because they're silly.
[Local leader] Are you happy about us cutting the poppy?
[Farmer] Everybody's sad deep down. Well, who hasn't sown them?
[VO] While the policemen evaluated just how much poppy they wiped out,
we decided to film a few more minutes of footage before leaving, but the episode remained unfinished.
[Correspondent] Perfect spot, the police sign. Start here and then move?
[Cameraman] You're in shadow. [Correspondent] Let's go over here.
[Correspondent] Stanislav, we don't have much time.
[Correspondent] May I? In one take. [Cameraman] Ok.
[Correspondent] Traditionally, if an operation was a success the policemen tie a poppy bunch to the radiator.
[Correspondent] It means the operation went rather...
[Correspondent] What the hell?
[Correspondent] Let's go!
[Translator] Right where we were, war's go on right now!
[Correspondent] We were out of there in five minutes? [Translator] Yes, five minutes.
[Translator] Even less.
[Correspondent] Sadly, we didn't finish filming that episode and didn't say goodbye to our characters.
[Correspondent] We're going back to Jalalabad.
[VO] An hour later, we were at the Jalalabad police station,
examining the battered trucks that had provided us with cover.
[VO] Last year several people were killed during the first week of the operation.
[VO] This time several people were wounded and a few bullet holes were left in the windscreen.
[VO] We'll never know exactly who was shooting at us -
perhaps resentful locals or dealers, the Taliban, or even ISIS fighters.
[Police] Two of our cars came under fire, one's in the shop,
and this green one is the other.
[Police] The one at the repair shop is in better condition that this one here.
[Police] Our operation in Ganihel will run for another month.
[VO] On our final day, we had mixed feelings about everything that we'd seen.
[VO] On the one hand, anti-drug police units are produsing well results.
[VO] On the other, anyone can strike a bargain with some local authoroties for baksheesh, be it a lot, or a little.
[VO] The forecast is not optimistic.
[VO] They expect a record poppy crop this year, big enough to prepare and send abroad around 800 tons of heroin.
[VO] Continuing clashes between the Taliban and ISIS and it means new war and new blood.
ONE WEEK LATER A BOMB EXPLODED IN JALALABAD.
THE ACT OF TERROR KILLED OR INJURED MORE THAN 30 PEOPLE.
THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME ISIS MILITANTS CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY FOR AN ATTACK IN EASTERN AFGHANISTAN.